Kinetics of mechanical activation of Al/CuO thermite

The general aspects of the mechanical activation (MA) of Al/CuO thermite compositions based on micron-sized particles and nanopowders of the starting components have been analyzed using X-ray diffraction and hydrogen titration. The latter method has been employed to evaluate the amount of residual oxygen in CuO and Cu₂O from the weight loss during heating in H₂. The reactivity of the activated mixtures was assessed using DSC and TG in combination with mass spectrometric analysis. In addition, we have measured the ignition temperature, burning velocity, and brightness temperature of the reaction products. The results demonstrate that mechanical activation leads to the fragmentation of the components, mixture homogenization, and the formation of a composite, producing “weakly bound” oxygen in CuO_n and causing partial reaction between the components. The total exothermic heat effect in DSC scans, burning velocity, and brightness temperature as functions of specific milling dose (D) have an extremum. The highest reactivity is observed near D = 2 kJ/g, where a sufficient defect density in the components and good mixture homogenization are ensured, but the degree of MA-induced conversion does not exceed 10%. The burning velocity then reaches 400–700 m/s, and the brightness temperature is 3400–3800 °C. The milling dose dependence of the self-ignition temperature has no extremum. The self-ignition temperature steadily decreases with increasing milling dose, even though the ignition knock “power” falls off. The use of nanoparticulate starting components does not appear reasonable.